Slim down your smoothie for a healthy breakfast

Tag : Soy Milk Powder

With summer on the way, there is nothing more refreshing than thethought of a cool, creamy fruit smoothie to jumpstart the day. Butbe forewarned, especially if you're trying to slim down to fit intothat special swimsuit you just bought: A lot of smoothies can becalorie traps.

Because fruit smoothies are seen as healthy alternatives tomilkshakes and other frozen treats, people often don't think aboutthe calories, says Chris Ilcheson, a registered dietician andpresident of Nutrition Solutions in Greenville, S.C. But a smoothie"can be very similar to a typical milkshake, which can haveanywhere between 400 to 600 calories in it," he says.

Whether you are making your own smoothie or purchasing one from asmoothie bar, there are some ingredients to avoid and someingredients that are essential to make your smoothie a healthymini-meal or meal replacement.

"You want to avoid using any form of regular sugar, honey, brownsugar or sucrose and entertain the idea of alternative sweetenerslike Splenda," Ilcheson says.

Even though honey, brown sugar and raw sugar may be "natural," theyare still calorie-dense items and should be avoided if you don'twant your smoothie to send you looking for the next size up.

"When you're making these smoothies, in order to watch the caloricvalue, you need to avoid calorie-dense items  that's going to besugar and also fattening-type items such as whole milk versus skimmilk."

Also watch out for flavored soy milk versus nonflavored, andyogurts that may be fat-free but are extremely high in added sugar,he says.

Whey protein and soy protein powder can be healthy additives if youwant your smoothie to be a meal replacement.

"But, again, these protein powders do have calories," Ilchesonsays. "You want to make sure you're choosing a protein powder thatis very low in sugar, that has less than 10 grams of sugar perserving size."

"Tofu's a very lean source of protein. It's a soy protein,"Ilcheson says. "There are a lot of health benefits to soy. It helpslower cholesterol, helps prevent some forms of cancer, and theAmerican Heart Association recommends it, so that could be ahealthy addition."

Wheat germ also can be used to fortify your smoothie nutritionally.It adds fiber, folic acid and B vitamins, he says.

While wheat germ and tofu don't pack a whole lot of flavor in andof themselves, you can experiment with the new calorie-freeflavorings and syrups to sweeten up your smoothie.

"Another thing you can use to get creative is Crystal Lightpowder," Ilcheson says. Just take a no-added-sugar vanilla yogurt,skim milk and crushed ice and add some orange-flavored CrystalLight to make an orange creamsicle flavor, he says.